


Come Back

by reeby10



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Episode Tag: s03e05 Monster, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Off-screen Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 18:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8458660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: Cisco was a little ashamed of how long it took him to pull together all the pieces.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm supposed to be working on my NaNo, but HR's comment in 3x05 about his partner at Star Labs got me thinking and then I saw [this post on tumblr](http://politeandnotgay.tumblr.com/post/152610199063/ok-but-follow-me-closely-here-hr-h-r) and I accidentally a fic instead ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Thanks to Biff for the beta!

“So your partner at Star Labs,” Cisco said, tapping a pen against the edge of the desk as he waited for a simulation to run. He was bored enough to ask the question he’d been wondering about since HR had mentioned it a week ago. “Who is he? He got a doppelganger here?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah,” HR said. He gave an awkward laugh, hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck. It was entirely uncharacteristic, and it immediately made Cisco suspicious.

Cisco waited a long minute, but nothing more seemed to be forthcoming. “What’s his name?” he asked with a little more of a bite. He was beginning to think this version of Harrison Wells might be the worst after all. At least the other two usually answered his questions.

“Paco.”

“Paco?” Cisco asked, wondering if he was hearing things. “His name is Paco?”

That was not at all the sort of name he was expecting from the brains behind Star Labs. The only Paco he knew was his great uncle, and his family didn’t exactly keep in touch with him anymore. There had been some sort of split long before he was born, and the family name hadn’t been passed down to anyone in Cisco’s generation.

HR grinned, eyes glittering with some secret amusement. “Yep. That’s his name. Not exactly the shining image of scientific brilliance, huh?”

“Yeah, not so much,” Cisco admitted.

He made a mental note to search for Paco’s doppleganger later. He had to exist somewhere, though it wasn’t likely he’d come to Star Labs or met this earth’s Harrison Wells. Still, it was hard to tell when someone outside their little Team Flash circle might be the key to taking down the meta of the week sometime. Might as well find out what he could.

***

A few days later, Cisco found a chance to ask another one of the questions that had been bouncing around his brain. It was just him and HR in the lab again, him working and HR doing… whatever it was he did when he was trying to look like an actual useful member of the team.

“What does HR mean?”

“It’s my initials, a nickname,” HR said with a laugh, not stopping the beat he had going with his drumsticks. “Don’t you have those on this earth? I mean it’s kind of weird here but-”

“Yeah, I know,” Cisco interrupted, reaching out to stop the incessant tapping of those sticks. Every fucking time this happened. Like he needed a reminder they were from different earths. “We have nicknames too. What does it _stand for_ then?”

“Harrison of course!”

Cisco bit back a sigh, wondering why he was even bothering. But he’d been wondering since this other Harry came through. “I’m pretty sure we’ve already established that. What about the R?”

“I, uh, took my husband’s last name when we got married,” HR said, which wasn’t _exactly_ an answer, but interesting nonetheless.

“You’re married?” Cisco asked before he could think better of it, voice full of disbelief. “To a man?”

HR’s eyebrows rose, hands coming up to clutch at his chest dramatically. “Why Francisco,” he said, “I wouldn’t have pegged you as homophobic. Though I suppose that could be another difference here. Are men not allowed to get married on your earth?”

“No, no, they are,” Cisco said in a rush, a heavy flush coming over his face. God, that’s how it had sounded, hadn’t it? “I mean, they can. It’s legal here. I just… both of the other Wells were married to women. Well, one woman. Tess Morgan.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess they would have, wouldn’t they?” There was a small, slightly sad smile on HR’s face before he shook his head. “I mean, I was too, for a while. She died in a car crash. I suppose you know that though, yeah?”

Cisco nodded. Some things really were constants. “So you got remarried?”

“Been together, what, about eight years now,” HR said, nodding. He spun one of his drumsticks in a lazy circle. “He’s holding down the fort back on our earth while I’m here.”

“He doesn’t mind you’re here?” Cisco asked, surprised. “On a completely different earth?”

“Well, I don’t think he was _thrilled_ ,” HR replied, and there was something sad and maybe even a little lonely in his eyes. It reminded Cisco a little uncomfortably of Harry somehow, how sad he’d been in the months before they found Jesse. “But you know, he was the one who told me to come in the first place. I needed a little distance from home.”

“Wait, I thought your partner at Star Labs did that. Paco.”

“He did,” HR said easily.

Cisco let out a moan of frustration. Why was every Harrison Wells so fucking cryptic? Were they allergic to straight answers or something?

“Whatever,” he finally said, figuring it wouldn’t do him any good to push that particular line of questioning. He tried to remember how this whole conversation had even started. What HR stood for, that was it. “Back to my earlier question. The R, what does it stand for?”

“Oh, yes, you did ask that, didn’t you?” HR said with one of his infuriating grins. “It’s my last name. Ramon.”

“Of course it’s your last name, but what _is_ your last name?” Cisco asked, trying to hold back the urge to throw something at the older man. A marker maybe.

HR frowned. “I just told you, Ramon.”

Cisco opened his mouth to ask again, to make HR actually give a straightforward answer for once, but there was a sudden rush of air and Barry stopped a few feet away from them, saying something about an emergency. Cisco followed him out at a run, HR a few beats behind. All thoughts of the odd conversation fled his mind.

***

Cisco was a little ashamed of how long it took him to pull together all the pieces. When he finally got it, everything HR had said seemed incredibly obvious. Not that HR was ever really straightforward, but the clues were all there. A little turned around in some cases, but there.

He found HR downstairs, laying on his cot and waving his hands in the air like he was conducting some invisible orchestra. He knocked on the door jam, and HR sat up, grinning. Cisco tried a polite smile in return, but he wasn’t sure it came out right, so he just came into the room, stopping a few feet away from the cot.

“You’re married to your earth’s version of me,” he said, staring right at the older man.

“Ah.” HR glanced around, anywhere but at Cisco, and it was easy to see he was trying to find a way out of this conversation. “It didn’t seem relevant at the time.”

“Didn’t seem relevant?” Cisco sputtered, mind whirring. “How does… how is that not relevant?”

HR shrugged, finally making eye contact. “It’s a different earth,” he said, like Cisco didn’t actually know that. “It didn’t look like you and the other me had the same kind of relationship. I didn’t want to make you all, you know, uncomfortable.”

That was probably the most self-aware thing Cisco had heard HR say so far and it annoyed him a little to realize he was right. It would have made him uncomfortable. It _did_ make him uncomfortable. Mostly because now he was imagining him and Harry and that was really not a rabbit hole he wanted to go down right now. It was pointless, anyway, with Harry back on his own earth.

At least he wasn’t thinking about this earth’s Harrison Wells, or more accurately Eobard. That would be even worse.

“Yeah,” Cisco finally said, deflating a little. He hesitated a moment, wondering how to say what he was thinking, or even if he should, but finally shook his head and turned to go. “Thanks, I guess.”

HR waved a hand. “I don’t want you to think I’m, you know, lying or keeping something for you,” he said, far more seriously than usual. “I wouldn’t do that, especially about this.”

Cisco thought for a moment, but any suspicion he’d had had fled him entirely. He sighed heavily, not sure whether to be glad or annoyed about that. “Yeah.”

***

Despite not blaming HR for keeping things from him, Cisco avoided the older man as much as he could over the next several days. He tried his best to be inconspicuous about it, but he could tell the others knew something was off. It wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, though, so he made sure to avoid those conversations as well.

What he’d learned about HR and his own Earth-19 doppelganger continued to haunt him whenever he slowed down enough to think about it. It shouldn’t have mattered, shouldn’t have bothered him the way it did. So what if one Harrison Wells married one Cisco (or well, Paco) Ramon? That didn’t have anything to do with him.

If only he could convince his brain of that.

One night, still lying awake hours after he went to bed, Cisco had to admit that it really did matter. It mattered because he wanted what HR had with Paco. It mattered because he wanted the same thing for him and Harry. It mattered. Now he just had to figure out what to do about it.

Barry’s deadline for HR to prove his usefulness was quickly coming to an end, and Cisco was fairly certain he’d be sent back to his own earth. Hopefully a few weeks away was enough to help with whatever problems he had there, but in the end they just needed a Harrison Wells that could contribute to the team, and HR was not the one for them. For him.

But with HR gone, they still had that empty spot. More and more, though, even setting aside his personal feelings, Cisco knew Harry was the only one that could take that spot now. He’d proven himself again and again. He’d saved them all at some point or another. He was brilliant and frustrating and fit perfectly into Team Flash. They just had to convince him that their earth was the place for him.

The idea was half formed in his mind on the morning they were sending HR back home. There was a round of slightly awkward hugs and pats on the back between HR and the rest of the team. Cisco stood to the side, watching the blue swirl of the breach and waiting to close it behind their short-term companion.

“You’re still thinking about it, aren’t you?” HR asked as he came around to Cisco, grabbing him by both shoulders. “About Paco and me.”

Cisco shrugged, but it wasn’t like he could deny it. “Yeah, I am,” he replied. He could see Caitlin looking at him strangely from the corner of his eye, but he resolutely ignored it. “It really got me thinking about… well, thinking.”

“Thinking, yes, yes, that’s good,” HR said, bobbing his head, and Cisco had to grin. It still struck him that this Wells was so incredibly different from Harry, or Eobard pretending to be Harrison Wells.

“I hope so,” Cisco agreed.

HR nodded again and stepped back for one last look around the group. Cisco thought they’d probably all miss him to some degree. He wasn’t a fit for the team, but with his bizarre sense of humor and strange mannerisms, he’d managed to worm his way under their skin anyway. With one last nod, he jumped into the breach.

Cisco pulled his goggled down over his eyes and closed the breach behind him. He gave himself a moment to gather his thoughts before removing the goggles again and stepping over to where Barry stood.

“So we still need a Wells on our team,” he said, staring at Barry but watching as the others moved in closer. “Since this one didn’t really… work out.”

Barry nodded, normally cheerful face looking troubled. “Yeah, I guess we need to send the puzzle to some other earths?”

“I actually had a different idea about what to do. A better idea, I hope,” Cisco replied. He fought down the blush that threatened to rise when he thought about it. While this idea was in large part guided by his own personal interest, it wasn’t like it wasn’t what was best for the team as well.

“Cisco, what are you thinking?” Caitlin asked, suspicion clear in her voice. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but from the look on her face, it didn’t work too well.

“I want to convince Harry to come back.”

There was an explosion of noise as everyone started talking at once. Cisco couldn’t really tell what anyone was saying as they all talked over each other. It was beginning to make his ears ring, and it really wasn’t helpful to the matter at hand.

“Stop!” he shouted, almost surprised that everyone immediately stopped talking. “Sorry, sorry. I just… let me explain?”

Barry nodded, and Cisco looked around at the group. They all had their eyes on him, a frown on Joe’s face while most of the rest just looked considering. Here went nothing.

“I think we can all agree that we need a Harrison Wells on our team,” he said, and received nods from Caitlin and Barry. “HR was obviously not the right one. And I don’t think any of the others we could try to contact are either. But Harry fits here, you know? I just have to get him to see that.”

“And how are you going to do that?” Caitlin asked, eyes narrowed as she looked at him. “His home is Earth-1, and Jesse’s there too.”

Cisco took a deep breath, considering how much he wanted to tell them. It was probably best to keep it vague, if only to protect his pride if he was rejected. “I think I have something that will convince him,” he said, trying to sound confident. “At least, I hope so. You’ll just have to trust me.”

“Of course we trust you,” Barry said with a warm smile. The others murmured agreement, and Cisco felt a matching smile overtake his face.

“So…” Cisco said, hand drifting up to his goggles.

“Yeah,” Barry said, giving a put upon sigh that Cisco was fairly certain was more fond than anything. “Go try and convince him to come back.”

***

When Cisco came through the breach, he found the the lab empty. It wasn’t surprising, but it was oddly creepy to be there alone. When he’d come through before, it had been with Barry and Harry, and there hadn’t really been time to think about his surroundings.

He pocketed his goggles and made his way upstairs as quickly as possible, wondering if he was going to be stopped by security. A few scientists looked at him strangely as he passed by, but no one tried to stop him as he headed for Harry’s lab.

Outside of the lab, he stopped to center himself a little. He was pretty sure he knew what he was going to say, but out here, it was hard to get his thoughts straight and he hadn’t even seen Harry yet. He just hoped he could pull it together and not blow it by utterly embarrassing himself as soon as he opened his mouth. That would be so typical.

After another minute of quiet pep talking, he stepped inside. Harry was bent over a table by the far wall and Cisco took a moment to admire the way the dark fabric of Harry’s jeans hugged his ass. Cisco cleared his throat, carefully walking further into the room.

“I told you I don’t want lunch,” Harry snapped, not even looking up from whatever he was working on. Cisco thought it was a little fucked up that he’d missed that tone of voice, but he really really had.

“Big Belly Burger not doing it for you anymore?”

Harry spun around at the words, his pulse gun in hand, and Cisco automatically raised his hands in defense. “Woah, dude,” Cisco said, heart suddenly beating in overtime. “A little paranoid there?”

“You…” Harry said, eyes wide. He didn’t look angry, which Cisco took as a good thing, and a moment later he tossed the gun back on the table. “What are you doing here?”

Cisco swallowed hard, suddenly wondering if this was such a good idea after all. It didn’t look like Harry was very happy to see him, though it was always hard to tell with the older man. Maybe he’d made a big mistake coming here, but if he’d learned anything, it was that the only thing to do was keep pushing through.

“HR didn’t work out,” he said, throat dry. He swallowed, hard. “I came to ask you to come join the team again. You’re… you’re the best Harrison Wells for the team.”

Harry regarded him for several long moments, eyes sharp. Cisco tried not to fidget as he waited for an answer. The urge to say more bubbled up in his chest, but he pushed it down, not wanting to break the moment by delving into his own feelings yet. That would be his last ditch effort to get Harry to come back, because it would either work or fail spectacularly. He wasn’t sure he was ready to find out which.

Finally Harry seemed to find whatever he was looking for in Cisco because he moved forward until they were only feet apart, a tiny smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “That’s the only reason?” he asked, voice low.

Cisco felt his gut clench, but he fought off the immediate urge to say yes. That wasn’t what he’d come for, wasn’t what Harry needed to hear from him. Or at least not what he needed Harry to hear.

“No,” he replied, voice just as low. “I also just want you to come back. I want… you.”

“Good.”

Before Cisco could really process what he’d just heard, Harry had closed the gap between them. Warm, calloused hands cradled his head and lips were pressed insistently against his. Cisco sighed into the kiss, all the tension he’d been holding since that conversation with HR melting away. His own hands came up to clutch at Harry’s sweater, desperate for something to hang on to.

It was very quickly becoming far more steamy than Cisco was really comfortable with in the middle of a lab that anyone could walk into at any moment. Not that there were many people willing to walk in unannounced on Dr. Harrison Wells, but Jesse was certainly one of those people and Cisco definitely didn’t want that to happen.

Talk about awkward.

Cisco pulled away, smiling as Harry tried to follow him, before giving in and pressing their foreheads together, both of them panting. Cisco felt happier than he had in a long time, almost delirious with the realization that Harry wanted him as much as he wanted Harry. He’d been hoping for this when he’d decided to come through the breach, but he’d never really allowed himself to think that it would actually happen.

“So is that a yes?” Cisco asked, hands still stroking the strong lines of Harry’s shoulders under his dark sweater. “To coming back to the team?”

It was hard to tell from the angle, but Cisco was pretty sure Harry was glaring at him. Just like old times then, only better. Somehow it made something warm light in his chest at the thought.

“What do you think?” Harry asked snidely.

Cisco just laughed, leaning in to give him a quick kiss. It was just the barest press of lips, but he was pretty sure there would be more and soon. First though, there were a couple things to take care of. “I think you should probably talk to Jesse about setting up a visiting schedule.”

“Fine,” Harry groaned, but pulled completely away and headed for the door. He looked back at the doorway, eyes glittering behind his glasses. “But you better have a really nice bed in your apartment. I’m not sleeping on a cot one more night.”

**Author's Note:**

> Concrit welcome. If you like my fic, feel free to come hit me up [on tumblr](http://voldiebuns.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
